Three other stumbling blocks are pointed to by Bryce. First, G-Dub's record on the environment: "Even the Dallas Morning News, a bastion of conservatism and long a staunch Bush ally, has criticized Bush for his lack of environmental fortitude. On April 12, Timothy O'Leary, a columnist and editorial writer for the paper (as well as a past member of the Bush administration, says Politex), penned an op-ed piece blaming Bush for the deteriorating air quality in the Dallas area. 'As a consequence of your foot dragging, Dallas-Fort Worth faces the very real prospect of federal sanctions, including restrictions on business development and the denial of highway funds.' O'Leary went on, saying that according to the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, Texas pollutes more than any state or Canadian province. 'A third of the state's rivers and streams probably violate federal water quality standards, though no one is certain because the state declines to test them all. More than two-thirds of Texans breathe air that federal environmentalists officially classify as dangerous to humans,' he continued." Another example of the poor Bush environmental record is to be found in our state parks, Bryce contends. "Our state parks are crumbling due to lack of funding. The state spends millions trying to attract tourists from other states. Yet Texas ranks 48th in the nation in per capita spending on parks. Asked what he has done for parks, Bush said he supports a program whereby 'parks will be endowed by private capital.' Isn't that great? While other GOP governors, including Jeb Bush of Florida, are boldly spending billions to add parkland and open space, our parks beg for dollars from dowagers."

"Welfare for the rich" is another stumbling block on the road to the White House, according to Bryce. The City of Arlington took land from other property owners for the Texas Rangers, paid $135 million to build the stadium, charges a nominal rent for the team's use of the stadium, and will give it free and clear to the team in 12 years. George made $15 million on the deal. "But what if, instead of baseball, Bush were involved in an oil deal? And because of that deal, a Dallas millionaire paid the sitting governor of Texas $15 million, with all of it going straight into the governor's pocket, not into his blind trust? Call me crazy, but I think reporters would have been swarming all over the transaction.The baseball deal is a prime example of Bush's privileged life. He never would have gotten a chance to buy the team if he hadn't been the son of a sitting president. Democrats will hammer him on the deal."

The final stumbling block, Bryce tells us, is overconfidence. True, the Guv did brag to Safire that he will become president. True, he has told his advisors that they should worry about policy and he'll take care of getting to the White House. However, his last gubernatorial run against a weak candidate with a weak bankroll in a weak party indicated that he takes nothing for granted. We think George's problem is arrogance, not overconfidence. Here's the way one Bush watcher expressed it in an e-mail: "George was on (Austin) TV last night talking about (criticism on the net) and his tone was pissed and dismissive. When I told (someone) that Dad sends me up the walls, that's what does it. The angry, dismissive, monied, arrogance. Rove has created the Bush campaign as though George is doing us a favor by running. He can hardly be civil with people now (even members of his own party who dare to question him, says Politex); imagine how he'd be if he were to become president. Nixon was a small town boy ... who wanted to have the White House looking like something out of the Marx Bros. "Duck Soup" flick. George would have it looking like the foyer of the CIA. People like George want to work as much as possible behind the scenes and away from public view and review. That's the way his dad tried to work. George's campaign boils down to "vote for me because I'm me and you're you." 5/31/99

In an Austin Chronicle story, "Borderline Bush," Erica C. Barnett goes down the list of Bush missed opportunities to show Hispanics that nearly half who voted for him made a good choice. Although 81% of Texas Hispanics supported the Byrd Hate Crimes Act, George did not and had it killed. Under the Bush tax cut plan, "border residents' taxes could actually go up," says Rep. Paul Moreno. Although the children's health insurance bill passed at 200% over poverty, Bush favored the less-inclusive 150%. (To put this into perspective, California and N.J. have passed 300% legislation.) "Bush has done little or nothing to promote border initiatives in the Legislature, where a major border infrastructure bill died," says Barnett. Bush made a point about wanting to back bills to do something about colonias-- substandard, unregulated development, mostly along the border. According to Rep. Domingo Garcia, "They need money for water lines and sewers, but it's not in (Bush's) legislative package. All the governor has done is appoint someone to do a study."

In short, with Bush and Hispanics, it's all talk and no walk: "Bush's quiescence on such measures seems especially odd in light of his former outspokenness on key issues like immigration and bilingual education," Barnett opines. " But since the 1998 election, Rep. Norma Chavez (in photo above) says, Bush has backed away from many of his more moderate positions. 'I was so proud of Bush when he took a leadership role and said we are not going to bash immigrants in Texas. But he has not done that this session,' Chavez says. 'When there was a history of prejudice against immigrants of Mexican heritage, he provided us with someone who wasn't anti-immigrant, and that's why I'm so disappointed to see that that leadership isn't there now.'" Nor is is likely to be there in the future, given George's past record and the attitude of the GOP leadership on the national level: "Bush will have to appeal to members of a party whose center is moving ever rightward, the governor will come under increasing pressure to follow his party's anti-immigration, anti-welfare, isolationist status quo" Given what is now known about Bush, perhaps Hispanics who voted for him in the last election are considering an old saying, "Once fooled, shame on you. Twice fooled, shame on me." 5/30/99

A Boston Globe story the other day had a Republican delegation from Massachusets meeting with Bush at the Shoreline Restaurant down on Town Lake. They had "come to praise George W., not to query him." But Sandy Tennant, a blunt, cagey pitbull of a political operative who had been executive director of the Mass. GOP in the late '80's, asked him about reports of an indescrete youth and a hot temper. "By the time the exchange was over, sources say, Bush was staring daggers at Tennant, and some others in the room were squirming in their seats. ''You mean, can I smile when a bunch of jerks asks me questions?'' Bush asked, affecting an icy smile. ''The answer is yes.'' Few at the table were left in doubt as to whom the Texas governor considered the jerk asking importunate questions at this particular moment." Tennant, the political pitbull, claimed he had a valid point to make: "friends pressed him on why he had grilled Bush so hard. He wanted to test Bush's composure; if the candidate couldn't stay cool in front of a friendly group of Republicans at a private lunch in Austin, what would he do under the glare of the TV lights during the campaign? Cast in that light, some conceded that, awkward though the moment was, there may have been a method to Tennant's badness. For if some of his fellow Bay State Republicans were uncomfortable about Tennant's impromptu stress test, they were also left a little uneasy about George W.'s smoldering response." 5/29/99

The problem is that last Fall the editorial board backed Bush for Governor, and then started to write editorials about their bum pick: "Did it ever occur to the Statesman editorial board that, while being a nice guy is certainly a laudable human quality, that maybe that alone is not enough to make a good governor." After they backed him, Davis and the other editors disagreed with G-Dub on his desire to keep laws in place that would "execute the mentally retarded." They didn't like the Guv's tacit support of a nuclear waste dump neare the Mexican border. They found his voluntary pollution control plan laughable. They didn't care for his seven white male appointees to the UT Board of Regents. They found his social promotion plan a "really bad idea that actually hinders a child's education." Nichols doesn't mention the possibility that there may be a difference in dynamics or personnel between the Board that selects the Statesman's gubernatorial recommendation and the folks who write editorials. Publisher Rich Oppel comes to mind. During the campaign Bush Watch wrote a piece on Oppel and the Guv entitled "Bush Roams As Oppel Fawns." Mr. O does like to be with the power guys. Read a few of his Sunday letters in op-ed and you'll get the idea. Further, perhaps it isn't accidental that the Statesman's editorials are not posted on its web site for the world to see.

Although editorial writer Mary Alice Davis has pointed out that "Bush is on the wrong side of numerous issues" and is worried about it, Nichols suggests that one has to go to The Texas Observer to find the kind of commentary that worry should bring. Interestingly, this Austin Chronicle reporter fails to recommend that the reader should pay attention to his own paper's commentary. For good reason. While during the campaign we religiously read the Chronicle each week, looking for the hard-hitting Bush reporting that Nichols finds missing in the Statesman, we honestly didn't find all that much to link to. To be fair, though, the Chronicle's present Bush issue is a partial corrective to past behavior. Meanwhile, we would enjoy a follow-up from Nichols connecting the policy dots between the Statesman and its web site, its owner, the Cox media empire, publisher Rich Oppel's role with respect to editorials and news, and the influence of media billionaires, such as the Bush-backing Hicks brothers, on the way news is presented in Austin. 5/28/99

Ten months before the Texas gubernatorial election, in the January 1988 issue of Texas Monthly,, Editor Greg Curtis wrote about the collapse of the Democratic Party in Texas in a story he called, "The Last Whimper." He pointed to the December, 1997 announcement of non-candidacy by Attorney-General Dan Morales as "the day the Democratic party of Texas finally collapsed, not with a bang but a whimper." Like the dinosaur, the party failed to adjust to the changing political environment in Texas: "Conservative Democrats, who had ruled the Southern states since Reconstruction, were giving way to Republicans throughout the South, including Texas." But 70's Dem governors Smith and Briscoe, who followed the 60's tenure of LBJ-backed John Connally, didn't seem to have much of a clue: "Both governors were incapable of understanding the intricacies of power, and during Smith's terms, corruption flourished. Nor could they recognize and attract people of ability and situate them to assume major roles when the time came. And what most needed to be done -- to create and communicate new goals, ideas, programs, philosophies for the state party so that it stood for something -- they were most incapable of doing." Mired in the mud of the political good ol' boy network, the young, talanted, and energertic newcomers gravitated toward the more fluid GOP: "For almost two decades (the Dems) embraced and rewarded a system of wait your turn, go along to get along in the Legislature that stopped the ambitious and talented dead in their tracks. New blood could not get ahead by hard work and ability -- that is, on merit -- but only by being in line behind whoever had gotten there first. That created an ossified party rather than a dynamic one." Curtis reminds us that Lt. Gov. Rick Perry started out as a Dem but switched when he read the handwriting on the wall. But Garry Mauro decided he would rather wait his turn then switch.

By the time the gubernatorial campaign began in earnest last Summer, folks in Austin knew that some Dems actually considered not running a candidate against Bush. Not because of George's strength, but because of the Dem's weakness. Why give Dubya a stick to use if he were to decide to run for president? Better to just sit back and allow him to coast to a meaningless plurality. Of course, this was not really an option. Texas pride and Washington fear took care of that. The Clinton camp believed that it had to support the strongest Democratic candidate that could be found and hope to find some weaknesses in Bush that could be filed away for future reference. Two things about Mauro recommended him for this thankless task: a long-time friend of Clinton's, he was willing to do his bit to support the party in its time of need; and he loved the game of political elections and felt he had earned the right to run. What he got for his pains was some Washigton funding and a cold shoulder from a number of Dems running for state-wide office. To put it bluntly, they didn't want to be too closely allied with the Texas Democratic Party in their appeals to the voters. Of course, everytime Bush turned around on the campaign platform he was rubbing noses with a Republican candidate standing behind him. What followed, as you know, was a disaster for the Dems. The GOP swept the statewide offices. During the campaign reporters would ask Mauro, "Why are you doing this?" He'd tell them he just loved politics and he had a real fighting chance! Last Sunday the Statesman reported, "Garry Mauro, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor, was appointed to the Fannie Mae Board of Directors by his longtime friend President Clinton." 5/27/99

Let's call Leininger's plan "The Phantom Menace" in honor of the poster above, designed by the good folks at Quantum Graphics. Since the ed. voucher movement has had so much difficulty establishing itself over the years, it's major backers have decided upon a two-pronged approcah to wear down the opposition. One, billionaires like Leininger in Texas and at least one member of the Walton clan (of the Wal-Mart fortune) outside of Texas simply establish scholarships with their own money for those who want to leave public schools and go to private schools. Two, the movement focuses on poor students in the neediest inner-city school districts. Of course, the backers anticipate that eventually the system will spread to wealthy, suburban districts as well. Further, no distinction is being made between private and religious education. What most folks don't know is that if you look through the history of the literature of the voucher movement, one of the goals of the financial backers is to get their money back; thus, in effect, creating a state-paid voucher system without even giving citizens an opportunity to vote for one. With a week to go in the session, "Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, now is searching for a bill to carry his franchise tax credits. Under the proposal, corporations would receive franchise tax credits if they donated money to public schools or private scholarship organizations. Howard said he has broad support, including from some lawmakers who are opposed to vouchers. 'In this case, the public schools could come out ahead,' Howard said. But voucher opponents labeled the move political payback because the Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation in San Antonio -- a pet project of San Antonio businessman, voucher patron and Perry friend James R. Leininger -- stands to gain from the measure. 'If this end run to vouchers is successful, Jim Leininger stands to gain up to $33 million in tax credits,' said Sam Smoot, executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, which opposes vouchers. The San Antonio scholarship fund gained national attention last year, creating a $50 million privately financed voucher program in the Edgewood Independent School District. The foundation is financed by CEO America and Leininger." This "back-up" plan is, indeed, a "Phantom Menace" to opponents of the voucher movement. 5/26

While the London Independent writes Bush's favorite reading is Baseball Weekly and Golf Illustrated (11/7/98), Burka reports Laura tells him George is reading a couple of thrillers and a book on Lincoln. Bush must have forgotten about his book reading habit in a recent C-Span interview. His office is filled with baseball memorabilia and he walks around with an electronic device for up-to-the-minute baseball scores. He "hates" meetings, he "tolerates" briefings, he "focuses on the big picture" and leaves the details to others. He leads by delegating authority, his "natural tendency" is "to vent his anger and then forget about it." Irony is suggested with "a 'heh' straight out of Beavis and Butt-Head." He gives people nicknames, like "Turd" for Karl Rove. On a recent visit to the House floor, "he locks an arm around (a Republican legislator's) neck, drawing him close, telling him, 'You need to be with me,' then pressing his victim's cheeks together until his mouth formed an 'O'." 5/25

Writing about Dubya's career up to the sale of the Texas Rangers, Michael King observes, "A diligent prosecutor with subpoena power and a large staff might well find evidence of specific crimes or corrupt practices by investigating one or more of the above episodes. At a minimum, the Bush biography should provoke the sort of public and press scrutiny that, thus far, candidate Bush has avoided. In that distinction, he seems less like his father and more like Ronald Reagan, another affable and apparently inoffensive amateur who left the hard stuff to his aides and allies." However, King sees George's activities as Governor in a different but not less harsher light: "Taken as a whole, the Bush biography is not about individual corruption but about class privilege, about the train that runs on a comfortable track, with varying stops but the same destination.... Although by his own admission George W. was an indifferent student, he was nevertheless the deserving-by-birth beneficiary of the oldest, most illegitimate, and most sacrosanct form of affirmative action, one that will not be subject to racially-tinged political debates about 'leveling the playing field' or 'reverse discrimination.' It's just business as usual, and therefore presumed invisible as privilege." But even more than Dad, to Dubya, with money comes privilege, and ideas such as "conflict-of-interest" and "corruption" do not appear to register on his radar. If they did, one would think he'd want to avoid even the appearance of questionable behavior. That's why he can get so angry and be so convincing when a reporter has the bad manners to bring up such questions. 5/23/99

If nothing else, Ratcliffe concluded in his Houston Chronicle pieces, "a pattern emerges: When a Bush is in office, Bush's business associates benefit." King goes on in his Texas Observer story to furnish some examples of the social, political, and financial relationships between Bush and his associates: "The partners who helped Bush dig himself out of the oil patch (William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds of Spectrum 7) are among the investors gathered into the group who made a bundle in the Texas Rangers deal. (Another noteworthy Rangers investor was Fred Malek, once a campaign manager for Bush's father, but most famous for dutifully fulfilling President Richard Nixon's demand for a list of Jews then employed at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) Richard Rainwater and his partner Edward "Rusty" Rose were also brought into the Texas Rangers deal, to a handsome return, and under the Bush administration, their companies came to benefit from the investment policies of the Teacher Retirement System, the Permanent School Fund, and the Permanent University Fund. By the way, the Permanent University Fund is managed by the University of Texas Investment Management Company, whose chairman is Tom Hicks, now owner of the Texas Rangers (purchased from the Bush partnership) - also a major Republican donor and a member of the U.T. Board of Regents, whose chairman is Donald Evans, treasurer of the Bush campaign. Funny how things work out." ( More on Hicks in Part 4.) 5/22/99

The Cranky Critic provides details of the beginning of Bush Wars. The planet Tex-Mex is under attack from the greedy U.S. Government Galactic Trade Federation due to some kind of dispute over the taxation of NAFTA trade routes. Tex-Mex's Guv Ann (Natalie Portman), a pacifist, will not give in to the Federation's demands, nor is she willing to wage War. Two political consultants, or Jedis, Qui-Gon Rove (Liam Neeson), a Jedi Master and his apprentice Obi-Wan Allbaugh (Ewan McGregor) are sent to Tex-Mex to mediate the dispute. The U.S. Government Federation, in league with a shadowy villain calling himself Darth Willie, has no intention of negotiation.

On the surface of Tex-Mex, the Jedis literally run into a clumsy native of the Gungan race, Reagan Jar Jar (Ahmed Best). (Elsewhere, critic Christopher Null says Reagan's "pidgin English...becomes bothersome after 5 minutes, incomprehensible after ten.") As the situation deteriorates, the Jedis, the Guv and her court, and Reagan flee for Austin, the planet wide Capital of the Tex-Mex Republic, to plead their case before the Senate. Engine troubles force them to land on an obscure planet named Dallas, where the U.S. Government Trade Federation has no hold, due to competition from a race of mobsters familiar to us all, the free traders. While searching out replacement parts for his spaceship, Rove meets an irresponsible youth with a baseball team named Bush Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and the Jedi feels something... (Note: In later episodes of Bush Wars, Bush Skywalker falls under the sway of Darth Willie and his way of life, and is then called "Bush, the Invader," or "Darth Vader," for short. As described by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone, Bush "will grow up to marry the queen, father the twins, and turn from the Jedi cause to the dark side as Darth Vader.")

Roger Ebert picks up the plot of this epic film from there. The key development in "Bush Wars" is the first meeting between the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Rove and the young Bush Skywalker --who is, the Jedi immediately senses, fated for great things. Rove meets Bush in a store where he's seeking replacement parts for his crippled ship. Qui-Gon Rove soon finds himself backing the young but irresponsible baseball team owner in a high-stakes gubernatorial race--betting his consulting business against the cost of the replacement parts. The race is one of the film's high points, as Bush and the Federation's candidate, a droid named Very-Wan-Mauro (Sal Mineo) zoom between high cliff walls of money. "Whoopee," yells Bush.

Why is Qui-Gon Rove so confident that Bush Skywalker can win? Because he senses an unusual concentration of the Force of Compassionate Conservatism--and perhaps because, like John the Baptist, he instinctively recognizes the one whose way he is destined to prepare. Rove has the wise elders of the Jedi galaxy visit the irresponsible, youthful baseball team owner and Bush Skywalker learns many things. (See picture.) For example, he learns that Israel is pretty small. He learns that people in Greece are not called Grecians. He learns that a Bulkan is not someone who divides his fingers into two groupings as a hand signal. The film's shakiness on the psychological level is evident, however, in the scene where young Bush is told he must leave his mother (Pernilla August) and follow this tall Jedi stranger....I expected a tearful scene of parting between mother and child, but the best we get is when Bush asks if his mother can come along, and she replies, "Son, my place is here." In Dallas?

Bush Skywalker and his entourage eventually make it to Austin where he claims his seat as Guv of Tex-Mex and pleads his case in the Senate to get the U.S. Government Galactic Trade Federation off the backs of the Tex-Mex Republic. Using the Force of Compassionate Conservatism, he enlists the aid of two leading senators of the Republic Party, Nute Gunray of the Gungan race and Lott Dodd, a Neimoidan. What follows is in the next episode of this epic production. Looking at this film, however, which deals with Bush Skywalker's gubernatorial race and his attempt to become the candidate of the Republic Party in order to fight the U.S. Government Galatic Trade Federation, Peter Travers says, "the actors are wallpaper, the jokes are juvenile, there's no romance and the dialogue lands with the thud of a computer-instruction manual." However, the film, written and directed by Karl Rove and George Bush, makes clear that its creators believe this is exactly what the majority of voters will pay good money to see. 5/19/99

"PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE SELECTED, THEN REJECTED, BY BUSH.(Rooters) In a bold decision that didn't appear to come as a surprise to the crack, necktied members of the Governor's security staff, George W. Bush selected his vice-presidential running mate yesterday evening. Then he changed his mind. In the photo on your left (not shown), the GOP presidential candidate is seen consoling his on-again, off-again selectee, seated behind the white column in a state of shock. A nearby reporter overheard Bush saying, "That's why I like to pre-announce announcements of my informal announcements to be made prior to my off-the-cuff announcements that preceed my announcement of the formal announcement! I'll never do that again!" Later, the Governor's spokesperson said next week's schedule is filled with visitors to the Governor's Mansion bringing petitions of support for a supportable candidate who will be in a position to offer support to find a viable candidate that Bush could support. 5/17/99